


So Close but Still a World Away

by mcgarrygirl78



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: Alternate Universe, Drama, F/M, Humor, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-20
Updated: 2014-04-20
Packaged: 2018-01-20 03:23:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,848
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1494742
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mcgarrygirl78/pseuds/mcgarrygirl78
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“I'm a smart guy but I think you lost me.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	So Close but Still a World Away

**Author's Note:**

> The title comes from the Madonna song, Crazy for You. I'm not her biggest fan but this song seemed to play in my head as I was writing the end of this story. Also, this might be a new universe for this ship but if it is I still don’t have a title for it yet.

“Are you sure your parents don’t mind?” Erin asked, pulling her knees to her chest on the couch. It was drafty and she only wore boxers and a tee shirt.

David Rossi lived in a basement. He lived in his parents’ finished basement of a house in the Palisades area of Washington, DC. There were seven Rossi siblings and he was smack in the middle. He was the oldest still living at home. The separate entrance from the backyard almost made it feel like an apartment. Six weeks into this thing they were doing, Erin was getting used to the feet and voices overhead. She hoped they didn’t hear her as much as she heard them.

“No, they're cool. I have lots…nevermind.”

“Were you gonna say you have lots of girls down here?”

“I was.” Dave replied, nodding.

“Because you're a ladies man.”

“I am.”

“Well you kinda suck at the guitar.” She suppressed her smile.

“I don’t practice a lot.” He admitted. “Usually saying I play is enough.”

“You can't bullshit with me, Rossi.”

“Clearly.” He strummed his acoustic guitar. “I can play a little James Taylor; some Tom Petty. I can play _Someone to Watch over Me_. My voice sucks though.”

“I like your voice enough.”

“Yeah?” Dave pulled the acoustic guitar over his head. He put it on the floor, sliding closer to her on the couch. Dave put his hands on either side of Erin, pressing his palms on the arm where her back rested.

“Yeah.” Erin caressed his face. “Can I ask a question?”

“Go for it.”

“Why are you 19?” she asked.

“Um…I was born in November 1987.”

“That’s not what I meant.” Erin shook her head. This time her smile was obvious.

“I'm a smart guy but I think you lost me.”

“You're a 19 year old high school senior. Did you get left back or something?”

“Would it matter if I did?”

“I suspect you didn’t since you're attending a pretty selective school.” She said. “What's your story, David?”

“I’ll tell you mine if you tell me yours.” Dave kissed her lips.

“Spill it.”

“The story I tell people is that I shattered my leg running bases during the farthest hit home run in the history of the Little League World Series. Commack, Long Island of the Mid-Atlantic region went on to defeat Hamamatsu City, Japan 7-4. It was a nail biter.”

“The story you tell people huh?” she smirked. 

“I don’t think Commack has ever been to the Little League World series.” Dave replied. “I did play baseball as a kid, so like every story there's a grain of truth in there.”

“What's the real story?”

“I had an atrial septal defect that required surgery when I was nine. I was pretty sick so I only made it through about a quarter of fourth grade. Having to repeat sucked but it beat the alternate. Without the surgery I would’ve died.”

“Atrial…”

“Atrial septal defect.” Rossi said it slower. “The medical drama term is a hole in the heart.”

“That’s where the scars came from?” Erin touched his heart. She wondered but never asked. When Rossi didn’t bring them up, as he brought everything about himself up, Erin knew they were deeply personal.

“I used to be so self-conscious about them. Now I respect them for the battle wounds that they are. I'm too young to tell girls I was in the first Iraq War.” Rossi replied. “I'm even too young to tell them I was in the second one.”

“Why do you need to make up stories at all?”

“My mother says I have an overactive imagination. What did she expect, I spent months in a bed recovering. I think some of it was her fear that I would drop dead with too much exertion.”

“She can't possibly know what you're up to now?” Erin smirked.

Laughing, Rossi scooped her up with his arm and onto his lap. He did it in one fluid movement, which was a turn on. Erin ran her fingers through his thick, black hair while he kissed her neck. The feeling of his lips on her skin always made her shiver. She loved and hated that.

“Goddamn I love your neck.” He murmured.

“Don’t you mark me like a cheap motel room rug.” She shivered again as he nuzzled her.

“Why can't I mark you like a rug in a four-star hotel?” Rossi asked. “There's a difference, which you’ve so clearly pointed out.”

“If there's anything purple on my neck when I get home, your mother will have to put you on a milk carton. Hand to God.”

“I love it when you're feisty.” He pulled her close again, chuckling against her smooth skin.

“I can be feistier than that and you know it.” Erin went to unbutton his Levi’s.

“Hey wait, I want to talk to you. I get my question.” Dave gently took hold of Erin’s wrists.

“You started this. You get me all excited and then wanna talk.”

“We can not talk anytime. Just say the word.”

“I'm saying it.” Erin slipped out of his grasp.

“Why fencing?” Dave asked.

“Huh?” the question caught her attention.

“Why fencing? I've never met anyone in my entire life who fenced. I've heard of it but never even seen it up close. It was like one of those things that happen in novels of convention written in the late 19th century. What made you love it so much?”

“You're going to think I'm silly.” Her eyes were downcast when she said it. Then Erin looked into his. She wanted to really see what was there, what he was getting at. It was the same thing she always saw. When Dave looked at her it was a strange combination of awe, curiosity, and a little fear.

“I doubt that very seriously, Erin.”

“I wanted to be a swordsman when I was a little girl.” She said. “My parents can't quite remember which stories they read to me as a child since there were so many. But I used to take paper towel rolls and pretend I was sword fighting. Then I made my own at age four out of cardboard. 

“Let me tell you how that was no easy feat with fuckin safety scissors. Then I saw Star Wars and I knew it was my fate to be a Jedi. Imagine my disappointment when I found out there was no such thing. But my mother had been a fencer in her youth so she took me to get my first lessons.”

“How old were you?” Dave asked.

“I was five. My Nan bought me that first set of lessons for my birthday. She's French and the sport is quite popular in France so she was proud I wanted to learn. I've been fencing ever since.”

“One day you're going to have to teach me the rules. It’s not exactly something I can find on ESPN. Not even at 3 a.m. I tried.”

“You tried to find fencing on TV?” Erin raised an eyebrow.

“Yeah. I found a couple of Olympic matches on YouTube but they were all guys. I imagine girls play pretty much the same way.”

“Yes, but there are three different styles of fencing so…”

“Three different styles?”

“It’s a long story. We don’t have to talk about it.”

“I kinda want to talk about it.” He said.

“Why?”

“If it interests you then I want to know more about it.”

“You're getting too close.” Erin cleared her throat and climbed off his lap.

“You were just on my lap Erin, undoing my jeans. It doesn’t get much closer than that.” Dave said.

“Yes it does.”

“Just because I want to know some of the things you like, things that you love, does not mean I'm picking out our wedding china. Though I do have to say that the Wedgewood Renaissance Gold Collection is fabulous. It’s a trusted classic.”

“You are so strange.” she shook her head.

“I'm just going to say thank you and nod my head. You want me to play another song?”

“No!” Erin laughed, waving her hand as he picked up the guitar.

“Hey, I thought my cover of _Fast Car_ was epic.” Dave said.

“It wasn’t.” she said. “I’ll tell you about the three styles of fencing one day, I promise.”

“Only if you want to. I can Google it and learn it the boring way. Which style do you compete in?”

“I'm an epee fencer. I started as a foil when I was five, did that for about 6 years, and switched to epee before I started competing on a national level. I had to crash course it but I think I did alright. Is the heart thing why you don’t play sports?”

“I don’t want my face to get bruised.” Dave replied.

“Why?”

“Because it’s gorgeous, that’s why. I think that’s enough.”

“Oh shut the fuck up, Rossi.” Erin wrapped her arms around him, pulling him into a passionate kiss. It didn’t take long to be back on his lap. Well that little revelation was mostly painless. His tongue in her mouth was slowly burning off any of the weirdness that always came from telling people about herself. 

Erin was a private person. She didn’t quite know why, but beyond Ursula, Elizabeth, and Sarah Morgan who had been her fencing training partner since she was 12, Erin didn’t have a lot of people in her life. She’d always been fine with that. Now she spent time thinking about where Dave Rossi might also fit into this mix. “You wanna fuck?” she pressed her upper body on his. 

His reaction to her body and the question were already known before she got the sentence out of her mouth. Dave always wanted to fuck. He was young and attractive and virile so why the hell not. Erin was well aware that she was at the top of his list; had been for some time. 

“You're trying to shut me up.” Dave slid both hands down her back and caressed her ass. 

He gave it a gentle squeeze before he stood up from the couch. Erin wrapped her legs around him so she wouldn’t fall. Nothing in the world would make him drop her. He started moving from the couch to his unmade bed. They’d already been in it once this afternoon.

“Do you object?” Erin ran her tongue over his lips, liking the way Dave gripped her tighter when she did.

“Something in my head says yes, but…” they fell onto the bed together.

“Which head?” she laughed as she finally got his jeans undone. Rossi wasn’t wearing any underwear so he was naked when she pushed them down his legs.

“I'm kinda crazy about you.” Dave caressed her face. “Try not to hold it against me.”

Smiling, Erin used all of her weight to roll them on the mattress. She knew Dave had to give a little, let go, to allow her to do that. She would try her best to do the same.

***


End file.
